MMRDA, these two cops are doing your job

Head constables Kadge and Sanap request drivers of trucks carrying cement-concrete to hand some over, and use it to repair potholes on Western Express Highway.

We don’t know whether the MMRDA, which is responsible for maintaining the Western Express Highway (WEH), will be inspired or embarrassed by this. For the past several weeks, traffic head constables Parmeshwar Kadge and Balasaheb Sanap, who are posted at Dahisar East’s Ashokvan area abutting the WEH, have been flagging trucks carrying cement-concrete. The aim is not to penalise the drivers; rather, the cops request them to leave behind some payload, which is then used by the two to repair potholes. So far, Kadge and Sanap have repaired over than a dozen potholes and promise to keep up the work.

Anyone who has ever used the WEH during monsoon will know the value of Kadge and Sanap’s efforts.

At certain stretches, such as just before the airport while travelling north, and between the Borivali-Dahisar stretch, craters create such a jam that it takes vehicles up to 40 minutes to cover less than five km. Even without the road troubles that rains bring, Mumbai has the worst traffic flow in the world, according to a recent report by location technology specialist TomTom, which studied traffic patterns in 56 countries. Adding to the chaotic traffic is the Metro rail construction,

(L) Balasaheb Sanap (holding the rake) and Parmeshwar Kadge at work in Dahisar; (R) Head Constable Kadge repairing a pothole on WEH at Dahisar

“There are so many potholes that they lead to accidents and bottlenecks,” Kadge said. “I was posted at WEH around a year ago, and it has been proved repeatedly that the traffic flow improves when potholes are filled up as soon as possible,” he said.

Sanap, who took up the WEH posting around the same time as Kadge did, was previously posted in Dindoshi. He said that he had tried such an experiment there and the results were encouraging. “We implemented it here and just like in Dindoshi, there was complete support from our bosses. We now work under the guidance of Inspector Mahadev Jadhav who is in-charge of the Dahisar traffic police,” Sanap said.

Meanwhile, we are half-way through this monsoon and the MMRDA continues to insist it is doing a good job. “Potholes are being repaired regularly,” the MMRDA spokesperson, Dilip Kawathkar, said. “During incessant rains, craters resurface. We are constantly monitoring the roads and filling up craters as and when they surface,” he said.